


The Aisle

by Bellatrix_Wannabe_89



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Post-Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-05-30 05:46:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15090287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellatrix_Wannabe_89/pseuds/Bellatrix_Wannabe_89
Summary: Robin turned away again, walking away from his doppelgängers daughter. She blurted out the words before she could stop them. "I want you to walk me down the aisle!" The thief froze for a moment before he looked back at the young woman. "I'm sorry," he said, the most genuine words he had said to Robyn since they met. "For what happened, I truly am. But I'm not your father."





	1. Chapter 1

Robyn couldn't contain the feeling of excitement and the glittering of butterflies as she pulled on her, what she referred to as, 'Magic Clothes'. Not her everyday jeans and T-shirt. No, she was going full on Enchanted Forest wardrobe.

Brown suede pants she had to lace up, a white lace and brown leather corset with a white lace peasant blouse underneath, brown archery gloves that laced up to the elbow and a warm woolen cloak dyed brown.

She wrapped herself in warm earthy colors, just like he would have liked. Just like he WOULD like.

The only modern thing she had on was the necklace she always wore; a golden linked chain with a small silver arrow charm and a tiny diamond on the arrowhead.

Her father had stolen it for her back when 'Marian' first told him she was pregnant. He was going to give it to her on her eighteenth birthday, 'the only piece of jewelry he never gave away' Regina said with a tearful laugh when she fulfilled her father's wishes and gifted it to the blonde girl on her birthday.

From the moment her aunt put it on her she had never taken it off.

After Robyn pulled on her boots she grabbed her bow and his quiver, on her brothers eighteenth birthday he had been gifted their father's bow while on her eighteenth Robyn had also given his quiver along with the necklace, and looked at herself in the full length mirror.

Everyone said she looked just like him. The only thing that was different was she had the pale green eyes that belonged to her mother and not his deep ocean blue ones which Regina, while she would never say it outloud, was thankful for. She couldn't imagine how much it would have hurt seeing his eyes every time she looked at her niece.

The high square forehead though, the pronounced jaw, the dark blonde hair, even the same hairline… everytime was the same. Only Robyn had only seen him in photographs so she couldn't judge for herself because she had never seen him in real life.

But that was all about to change today…

Robyn took a shaky breath as she grabbed the one and only picture of the two of them together and looked at it for a moment.

Regina had taken it the day they brought her home; Robyn was wrapped in a warm fluffy pink blanket, her face barely visible as he held her in his strong arms.

The undeniable love that was pouring out of him as he looked at her always made Robyn want to break down every time she looked at the picture. Regina told her once that the closest he ever came to tears was when he had to hand her over to Zelena while they were in the Underworld. It was as if not holding Robyn and being without her caused him physical pain.

He loved her. A true and honest and pure fatherly love that no one, not even death himself, could take away from her.

Because now… she was going to get a second chance at having her father back in her life

As Robyn was about to walk out of the bedroom the front door to her and Alice's apartment opened up.

"Robyn?" Regina called up to the young woman. Robyn smoothed out her already crease-less outfit and headed downstairs from the bedroom in the loft that had once belonged to Snow White and Prince Charming.

"Hey, Regina," Robyn greeted the brunette Queen with a smile that wasn't returned. As a matter of fact Regina looked quite upset. "Is everything alright?"

"Robyn," Regina sighed as she took in her nieces appearance. "You can't go."

"Go where? I'm just going out hunting, ya know, trying to save money for the wedding."

"Please don't lie to me," Regina said. "I know exactly what you're up to."

All at once any happy excitement or nervous flutters turned into a hard slab of concrete in her chest.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, pursing her lips at the Queen as she struggled to contain the temper her mother's side of the family was so well known for.

"How did you find out?"

"Your mother told me."

"How did she find out?"

"Alice told her."

Robyn scoffed in disbelief. Of course, the one person on this earth she thought she could trust had betrayed her.

"Great. Well I guess it's nice to know I can't trust my fiancée to keep a secret three days before the wedding."

"She was worried about you," Regina defended the curly haired blonde. "We all are, Robyn, this isn't good for you. You're just gonna end up hurt."

"I can handle whatevers gonna happen," Robyn argued."I'm a grown woman."

"It's not about maturity or age, it's-... He's not him."

"Yes he is."

"No he's not. Trust me, I know. I thought the same thing you did and it broke my heart when I realized how different they were."

Robyn rolled her eyes to the high wooden ceilings when Regina reached out and grabbed hold of her leather clad hands.

"Your father was the most honorable man I've ever met," Regina told her, the same whisper of tears in her voice that appeared every time she talked about him. "He once gave a homeless man his very last dollar and the literal shirt off his back then apologized because he couldn't give him more. That man who lives in the Queen's castle right now, who's married to the Evil Queen? He would have stolen the shirt back and wore it himself. He isn't him."

Robyn yanked her hands away from her aunt, staring her down with a thousand daggers in her eyes. This wasn't fair. Regina got to have a second chance with him, she got to see him after he was gone and she had far longer with him than Robyn got.

It wasn't fair that she was trying to take him away from her, not when she was the one who brought her here.

"As much as you like to think you are, you are not my mother," Robyn spat at the stunned Queen. "You brought him here, and for all you know he's changed! Hell he could have been wanting to meet me this whole time, he just didn't know where to find me!"

"Robyn, please, don't do this. I don't want this to ruin your memories of him."

"I don't have any memories of him!" the dark blonde archer cried, feeling the sharp prick of tears in her eyes. "Everything I know about him I've heard from someone else or from stories! He's no more real to me then some random person who watched that stupid fox movie!"

"Okay but this isn't him either! That fox movie got his personality more right than what this version is! He is not our Robin!"

"So says the person who almost got us all killed because you didn't wanna fight a version of your son!"

"Please just listen to me!"

But Regina's pleas fell on deaf ears.

Robyn pushed rudely by her, slamming into her shoulder as she yanked open the front door. "I'll be back later!"

"Robyn, don't!"

With a slam of the door the archer was gone.

She was surprised when her Aunt didn't follow her down to the street where she got into the food truck that had previously been Tianna's which was now Robyn and Alice's. But Robyn also knew that in about thirty seconds her phone would be going crazy with phone calls.

Sure enough the moment she pulled out of the parking lot next to the run down building 'Wonderland' by Taylor Swift erupted from her phone, Alice's ringtone and when she looked down at the screen she saw a bunny emoji encased by two hearts which was her display name for her fiancée.

Robyn silenced her phone, not wanting to lose her temper with the woman she loved. She would deal with the fact that Alice had told her mother her plans later, right now she had to concentrate on the road as she drove from 'Original Storybrooke' to the first Enchanted Forest part of 'New Storybrooke' where her father and the Evil half of Regina lived.

The further from Storybrooke she got, the quieter it became. Peasant homes and castles and rich manors surrounded her rather than the homes and businesses and apartments of, relatively, modern life.

As much as Robyn despised the quiet of her small sleepy town, she couldn't help but be in awe of the medieval-esque charm of the Enchanted Forest, where they traded jeans and hoodies for gowns and cloaks, where they used gold and silver rather than coins and dollars… Where honor and chivalry was rewarded rather than punished with mocking.

When the road turned from asphalt into a dirt road suitable only for wooden carts and horses Robyn was forced to pull and continue her journey on foot, the summer palace that was the Evil Queen and Robins home already seen from the edge of the forest.

Regina had elected to stay in her Storybrooke mansion rather than move into one of the castles in one of the other more traditional realms so the castle where she had her coronation was turned into a museum and the Evil Queen and Robin had stayed in their jagged slightly foreboding palace.

Robyn walked down the road for nearly a half hour, the black castle in the distance growing closer and closer with every step. She just hoped he was actually there and not spending the night away somewhere.

After a few more minutes Robyn decided to rest against a tree for a moment to catch her breath. She forgot how hot these outfits were.

She pulled the water bottle she kept in her quiver and as she went to raise it to her mouth she heard the telltale sound of a bow string being brought back. Before she could react she heard the sound of the release and in a half blink of an eye an arrow had ripped through her water bottle and slammed it against a nearby tree.

Robyn grabbed her own arrow from her quiver and put it in her bow as she whipped around towards the direction where the arrow had came from. She was about to loose her arrow when she saw the archer who had fired it so expertly.

"The first was a warning, M'lady," the archer who shot at her said, his own bow string stretched taut. "Chivalry and all that. I'm afraid I won't be as friendly with the next one so if I were you, I would drop your arrow."

Robyn couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe, couldn't move… she couldn't do anything but stand there and stare at the man she had waited her whole life to see.

When Robyn made no move to drop the arrow in her bow, the man sent another arrow at her, yanking Robyn out of her shock when his arrow split the one she had in her bow. She swallowed hard as she dropped the now ruined bow to the ground, slowly raising her hands as a smile she knew mirrored his appeared on her face.

"You're the only person alive who's ever worn a smile while she was being robbed," he said as he took several steps towards hers, his bow down now that she had no longer had a weapon.

His voice was the same voice she heard in her dreams. Not too deep, not too high, and his thick accent with a hint of playfulness was like a warm blanket.

He looked exactly the same as every photo she saw of him, the only difference was his hair was several shades darker but his eyes, those eyes that she had dreamed about looking on with pride when she took her first steps, with patience as he taught her how to shoot an arrow, with love and acceptance when she told him she was attracted to the girls in her class and not the boys...

Tears streamed down her face as she shook her head, terrified to blink incase he might disappear.

"That's not why I'm smiling," she breathed as he came closer.

He smelled like fresh air and pine and earth… He smelled like forest.

He raised his brow at the strange woman who had come into his realm. Why was she staring at him like that?

"Oh? Do you mind sharing with me why you are smiling then?"

"I'm smiling because…" More tears and a larger smile. "Because you're my father."

Robin blinked.

"Pardon?"

"You, you're my dad. You're my father."

Robin studied the young woman who was standing before them, a slight smirk growing on his face.

"I've heard many people spin many tales to get out of a robbery before, but this is a first I'll admit."

Robyn's face fell slightly. She had expected him to accept her with open arms, to hug her, to say that he had been looking for a way to get back to this realm to find her…

But, she reminded herself as the smile returned, it was a bit of a hard to swallow story. Plus he hadn't believed Regina about her mom being Marian either

"No it's- it's not a lie. You're really my father, I'm your daughter. That's why I'm here in this realm, I wanted to find you."

Another brow raised. "... I'm… your father?"

Robyn nodded, her smile growing as more tears pricked at her eyes.

"Yes! I've wanted to find you for SO long, you don't-!"

"What tavern wrench is your mother?"

This time it was Robyn's turn to blink.

"What?"

"Your mother, which loose moraled woman was she? There was so many before I got married it was almost impossible to keep track."

Robyn did what she never thought she would ever do in a thousand years.

She glared at her father.

"My mother isn't a 'loose moraled woman'," she spat at the man.

"No, I'm sure she's a perfectly fine upstanding citizen… Well, come on then, what do you want? Money? Royal jewels? Although judging by that stunning piece of jewelry hanging around your neck I'd say you have more than enough," he said with a nod towards Robyn's necklace, the whole reason eh had decided to rob her in the first place.

"I don't want money, I just- I wanted to spend time with you!" She quickly wiped away the sudden onset of tears that were no longer falling out of joy but were instead falling out of sadness. "My aunt is richer than you and your wife anyway!"

Robin laughed at the woman. "Oh really? Who's your aunt then? Because unless your aunt is Regina Mills then-."

"She is," Robyn barked. "Queen Regina is my aunt and the Wicked Witch is my mom."

The thief's face fell at the newly gathered information. "...You're Zelena's child," Robin breathed. "Her's and… and the other Robin."

Robyn nodded. "Yeah."

The thief swallowed hard, stammering out a few unintelligible syllables before he turned tail and left without another word.

Robyn starred after him for a moment, shell shocked at the response before she fell in step behind him. "Wait! Hey! Will you wait up a second?"

"Go back to your own realm," he told her without looking back at her.

"But I came here to meet you!"

"And now you have so if you wouldn't mind leaving me alone, I would very much appreciate it."

The girl froze at his words but after a moment of being frozen she continued following him.

"I wanted to ask you something. I was-."

"No."

"Dad, please, I-."

"Don't call me that!" he barked at her, finally twisting around to look at her. "I am not your father."

"Yes you are! I-."

"Who's this?"

Robyn turned and saw The Evil Queen striding up to them. Robyn swallowed hard as she looked over the ne'er-do-well version of her aunt, not realizing how close to the palace they actually had gone. She really was quite terrifying when you put her in the tight black gowns with the large hairdos and heavy dark makeup.

Robyn opened her mouth to tell her exactly who she was but the dark haired thief spoke up before she could.

"Just someone I met on the road," said Robin, effectively crushing the girls heart. "She got a little star struck when she met the famous folk hero."

The Queen scoffed in disbelief. "You are about the furthest thing from a hero in this realm."

"Yet you still married me," he countered with a smirk. "What's that say about you, M'lady?"

As hard as she tried to hide it, Regina grinned at the playful banter before she turned back to Robyn, her chocolate brown eyes landing on her necklace.

"That's quite the pretty little piece of jewelry," the Queen practically pitted as she strutted up to her, unknown to the Queen, niece. Before Robyn could blink, Regina reached out and snatched the necklace from her neck.

"No!" Robyn cried out as she grabbed at the Queen only to be pushed away by Robin. Regina magicked a mirror into her hands and put the necklace up to her neck.

"Not really my style," she decided before she tossed it to the archer. "You can give it away, Love."

"No, please!" Robyn begged as Robin pushed her away again as he pocketed the necklace. "Please give it back!"

Regina laughed at her desperate plea. "Why on earth would I do that?"

"My dad gave it to me!" she cried as tears made their way down her face. "It's the only gift he ever got me!"

Robin's face fell as he looked between the Queen and the young girl.

"Then you should probably ask him for another gift shouldn't you?"

"PLEASE!" Robyn couldn't help the sob that ripped past her lips. "Please give it back!"

"Darling, perhaps we could return it just this once?" Robin asked the Queen, trying to sound as if he couldn't have cared less as he could. "I'm sure there'll be other girls with other jewels on the road."

Regina sighed, flicking her hand carelessly. "Fine, give the brat back her necklace. After that, let's go. I've been outside way too long."

"Of course. I'll be along in a moment."

Robin waited until Regina was far enough away before he turned back to the girl.

"Here," he muttered, pulling out the necklace and slapping it back into her hand. "I got it back for you, now leave."

"Wait!" she cried, grabbing hold of his sleeve when he turned back to the castle. He huffed before he turned back towards her.

"What?"

Robyn swallowed hard, biting her lip as she looked up at him. The main reason why she had come to this realm of story, the reason why needed to do this before her wedding on the tip of her tongue.

"I um… I'm getting married," she told him. "In three days."

"Well give your future husband my sympathies."

"Future wife," she corrected, albeit far more anxious than she had pictured herself telling him. But, to her surprise, he gave no looks of disgust or moral outrage.

He looked the same as if she told him she was getting married to a man.

"Future wife then. Goodbye."

He turned away again, walking away from his doppelgängers daughter.

The words blurted out before she could stop them.

"I want you to walk me down the aisle!"

The thief froze for a moment before he turned back to the blonde woman, his face falling.

"I'm sorry," he said, the most genuine words he had spoken to her. "For what happened to him, I truly am. But I'm not your father. I'm not anyone's father," he finished, casting his gaze to the ground beneath him.

Another round of tears made their way down her face.

"But… you're my dad."

"No, I'm not."

"But-."

"I'm sorry," he told her once again. "I can't help you."

She watched as he walked away and she cried out the last possible thing she could think of to make him reconsider.

"Don't you even wanna know my name?"

He paused his step but didn't look back

"It's Robyn," she called out to him. "My name is Robyn Hood. She named me after him. After you."

For a half a heartbeat she thought he would turn around, run over to the girl and embrace her, apologize for being cruel and swear up and down things were going to be different now, that she would now have a father who loved and adored her. He would tell her he would be HONORED to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day.

That was how it worked in all the sappy movies she had ever watched about these kinds of situations. Her whole family were fairytale characters, she HAD to believe in happy endings…

But, she realized as she watched him just walk away and headed back towards his castle, this wasn't a movie. This wasn't a fairytale or one of the stories in her cousins magical book. This was real life.

And real life had no happy endings.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Special thanks to smeyer0501for convincing me to carry on this story and to give Robyn her happy ending and for helping me realize I could still have one of my own. Even if it's not QUITE what we expected...

Robyn slowly drank the ceramic mug of ale, ignoring the sounds of the lute and other medieval era instruments as well as the drunken banter and laughs of the mainly men in the tavern she had chosen to

Her phone had been ringing off the hook for the last few hours with teyxts and calls from her aunt, her mom and Alice but she ignored them all, except the one simple text from Alice that was mainly a single tear crying emoji after the third ignored call and the fifth ignored text.

God Robyn hated how adorable Alice was even in emoticons.

So she told her fiancée everything that had happened. From her 'Dad' trying to rob her to him telling her to basically leave him alone and everything else in between.

She told the sympathetic fiancée that she would be home later and to please tell her family to stop blowing up her phone.

After that the phone had remained relatively silent and Robyn had proceeded to trying to walk into some random Enchanted Forest tavern in an attempt to get drunk enough to forget what had just transcribed between her and the man she thought would have been her hero.

She was well on her way to a good buzz when some, relatively good looking man with dark brown hair and gray-green eyes, drunk on ale, stumbled over to her. He was wearing Enchanted Forest clothing, a stylish black and dark red striped doublet with black leather pants and high laced black boots.

"You, my dear," he purred in a rather smooth british accent. "Are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in this realm or any other for that matter…"

Robyn rolled her eyes as she took another drink from her mug. The man brazenly looked at her up and down, pursing his lips and moaning softly.

"As a matter of fact you are much too beautiful for words, M'lady…"

"Not interested," Robyn told him without sparing him a glance.

"Ooh, that's not very nice." The man's voice sounded like what Robyn imagined if a snake could talk. "What do you say I take you back to my mannor and I teach you some manners?"

Robyn just gave him the most disgusted face she could manage before she threw some dollars onto the bar, Regina had made it law that every realm must be willing to accept all the different types of currency that each realm used, and walked out of the tavern.

She was not in any mood to deal with this tonight.

To her immense displeasure she realized the man had followed her out of the tavern and onto the dark cobbled streets.

"Go away," she told him with a sharp bite.

"Come now, Darling… Surely whatever you have waiting at home can't be nearly as fun as me."

"I have a fiancée waiting at home," Robyn informed the snake-like man, praying that he would get the hint and leave.

"Well I'm sure he-."

"She."

The man scoffed as if Robyn had offended him before he broke into a light jog so he was now ahead of her, grabbing ahold of her arms to stop her.

"Hey back off, jerkwad!" she yelled at him, her heart beginning to slam against her chest.

Why the hell did douche Robin have to break her bow?

"Darling, the only reason why you believe you're satisfied with a woman is because you've probably never been with a real man such as myself," he purred, his hands digging into her arms tighter as he slammed her into a nearby wall.

"Let me go!"

He just smirked, pressing up against her. He leaned into kiss her, his chapped lips half an inch away from her.

_!WHOOSH!_

An arrow flew by the man's face, nicking the very tip top of his ear and crashing into the stone wall beside him.

"Let her go or the next arrow drifts a few inches left!"

Robyn closed her eyes not out of relief but annoyance. Why him? Why did HE have to be the one to rescue her?

At the sound of the man's voice the man's eyes went wide with terror. He began stuttering out unintelligible words as he turned to face Robyn's rescuer.

"Your- your majesty, I-!"

"Tell me why I shouldn't end your life, Nottingham," Robin told him sharply, another arrow already nocked and ready to be loosed. "Tell me why I shouldn't end your miserable existence."

Robyn's eyes went wide at the name drop. This… this was the Sheriff of Nottingham? This was her father's mortal enemy?

She knew of 'Keith' back in Storybrooke, neither Regina nor Zelena would allow Robyn near him, and thanks to his pompous womanizing mansplaining ways, the blonde didn't need to be told twice nor did she really care enough to get his backstory.

But this was the infamous Nottingham? Some whimpering coward? Her dad could have beaten him with one hand tied behind his back!

Nottingham opened his mouth, probably to come up with some sniveling excuse when his words were cut off completely and he struggled to draw a breath.

"What are you doing?" Robin demanded the blonde who looked just as confused as the archer.

"You're not doing it?" Robyn asked as she side stepped the choking man and went over to stand next to him.

"Of course not, I don't have any magic."

"I don't have magic either."

"But I do."

As both Robin and Robyn looked over at the familiar voice, Nottingham disappeared in a puff of dark purple smoke.

"Regina, what are you doing here?" Robyn said with a sigh as she returned her gaze to her aunt..

Regina ignored her niece and instead stormed over to the doppelgänger of the man she had loved and lost.

"You know when my Regina looks at me like that, it usually ends with one or the other handcuffed to the headboard," Robin said with a smirk which lasted all of two seconds before Regina threw him back into a wall."

"Regina!"

"You hurt my niece," she snarled as a glowing red fireball appeared in her hand.

Robyn was about to ask how exactly Regina knew what had happened during the exchange earlier but then she remembered she had told Alice. Who more than likely had told her mother who, of course, had went running to her aunt.

She REALLY needed to talk to Alice about the importance of keeping secrets in this family...

"Regina, it's fine. Can we just go?"

"It's not fine! He could have been nice to you, he could have let you down gently! Or better yet, he could have done what you asked and been a decent human being!"

"I'm not her father!" he yelled back at the brunette, struggling to get out of the magical hold she had him in. "Why the hell would I walk some random girl down the aisle just because a man who happened to look like me had a baby?"

"Because she asked you too!"

Robyn swallowed hard as she looked between the man she had thought would embrace her as a father and her aunt.

"I'm not that man!" Robin shouted at the Queen."You should know that better than anyone…"

Regina's anger slowly faded into sorrow. With a feeble wave of her hand the magic holding Robin to the wall disappeared and he landed back on his feet.

The blue eyed man looked between the two women, his own anger growing.

"You both have put this man, this other Robin, on top of this impossibly high pedestal," he barked as he reached down and grabbed his bow, pulling it over his shoulder. "Then you expect me to be able to climb up it like it was nothing and you get mad when I can't reach it."

"That's not what-."

"Do you think I like disappointing you, Regina?" he interrupted the Queen. "Do you think I like disappointing a woman who lost her soulmate? Do you think I like disappointing a young girl who lost her father before she even had a chance to know him?"

Tears slowly made their way downward from the corner of Robyn's eyes to the ground beneath her. This wasn't right. This wasn't wasn't how this was supposed to go, he was supposed to be her dad, he was supposed to love her, he was supposed to be everything she had ever dreamt of…

He was supposed to be the same man who had been willing to fight a Greek God just to rescue her.

"I just want my dad back…" she told him with a trembling voice. "I just want him to walk me down the aisle."

"I know… but I'm not that man, Robyn," he offered as gentle as his brash personality would allow. "Whatever you imagined him to be, I'm not, and it's not fair for you two to expect me to change who I am just so I can live up to a dead man's legacy. I'm sorry that you lost him. I am, truly. But whatever it is you're looking for? You're not gonna find it in me."

Neither girl spoke as he gave them each a polite nod before he turned tail and made his way back home to his castle.

The two women watched his retreating back for a moment before Regina turned towards her wet eyed Niece.

"I'm sorry," the Queen said softly.

The young archer wiped her eyes. "No you aren't."

"Robyn-."

"Can you just poof me home? I'll get my car tomorrow."

Regina sighed softly before in a burst of purple smoke they arrived back in the loft that Alice and Robyn shared where her fiancée was waiting for her.

"Love? You alright?" Alice cautiously asked as she watched the archer storm up the metal stairs without a word to the curly haired blonde.

"Robyn, will you just talk to me?" Regina pleaded.

Robyn froze mid-step before she whipped back to face her family and both women looking up the stairs were reminded that while her last name might have been Hood, Robyn was also very much a very fiery Mills.

"About what? You got what you wanted, you were right. He's not the same person he doesn't love me, he doesn't care about me."

"I didn't want to be right! I wanted this to work out for you, okay I-... I know how you're feeling."

"No you don't know what I'm feeling!" Robin shouted, hot angry tears flooding her eyes. "You got to spend time with my dad, you got to get to know him! Okay even my mom, who he HATED, got to spend more time with him then I did! It's not fair!" she yelled. None of it is!"

Now it was Regina's turn to get angry.

"Ya know what, you're right! It is not fair! It's not fair that I have to watch Emma and Hook and Snow and David parade around happy and in love and proclaim to the world how happy they are while I have no one, it's not fair that I lost my soulmate, it's not fair that my sister and him are connected in a way I'll never be!

It's not fair that if the world had cut me any goddam slack, you would be my daughter instead of Zelena's! It's been thirty years and I still see things of him that remind me of Robin. Hell just yesterday the color of Granny's shirt reminded me of the color of his eyes… I would give up EVERYTHING if it brought the man I loved back even for five minutes. But, despite all that," Regina continued. "I can't dwell on my feelings because I know he wouldn't want me too. I can't spend my whole life wishing that he was back with me, that the person who's married to the Evil Queen is the same person. Because he's not, and he's right, it's not fair to the other Robin to make him be something that he's not just so we have an illusion of him being back, and it's not fair to his memory to replace him with this… other person that you know… your father would hate."

By now tears were falling from both Robyn and Regina's eyes. Robyn let out a sob and sunk to the floor, hiding her face in her hands.

"I just want my dad back! I just want my dad…!"

Alice abandoned her spot at the table and ran over to her fiancée, embracing her as if she was trying to transfer as much warmth and love as she could to her, staying put when Robyn tried to push her away.

"I'm not letting you go," Alice told the crying archer softly while Regina looked over the couple. "Not for all the tea in Wonderland…"

Hours later Robyn sat beside Regina, resting her head on her shoulder while Alice sat beside them.

"We could have my papa walk you down the aisle," Alice offered sweetly. "He could walk me down then go back and walk you. We could share him."

Robyn managed a sad soft smile, sniffling as she shook her head. "I don't think it'll work, besides he's your dad, Alice, it wouldn't feel right."

Regina stroked Robyn's long dark blonde hair.

"I actually didn't want my dad to walk me down the aisle at mine," the Queen admitted. "I mean I did back when I thought I would marry for love but being forced to marry the king… it didn't feel right. Especially not when he didn't want it to happen anymore than I did."

"...So did he?" asked Alice.

"Did he what?"

"Walk you down the aisle?"

"He did. My mother was extremely traditional, and it was a royal wedding… she would have reanimated his corpse if that's what it took for him to do it."

Robyn pursed her lips for a moment.

"Aunt Regina?"

"Hmm?"

"If… if Dad had lived… and you two… who would have-?"

"Henry," Regina told her, already knowing the question she was going to ask. Regina let out a sad laugh. "To this day I can still picture it perfectly. Your brother would have been the ring bearer, Snow would have been my maid of honor, his friend John would have been his best man. It would have been out in the forest and everything would have been so beautiful and simple; simple decorations, simple white flowers, simple white dress, simple everything… the complete opposite of what my wedding to Leopold was.

He would have been in one of his Enchanted Forest outfits and Tinkerbell would have been the officiater. I mean she was the one who really brought us together, it would have made sense for her to be there when we finally sealed the deal…"

A soft smile rose on Robyn's lips. "It sounds like it would have been beautiful, Regina."

A kiss to the side of her head. "Thank you."

"... Maybe I could get Henry to walk me down the aisle? Upgrade him from Groomsmen to surrogate dad?"

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind," said Regina. "Or maybe Roland?"

"He's my Man Of Honor, it'll mess everything else up... Having Henry do it will be fine, I mean he's my closest male cousin so… I'm fine with it."

Regina frowned at the prospect of her son giving away her niece. They were close cousins and friends yes, but they weren't THAT close. She didn't want Robyn to be stuck a choice that she described as simply 'fine', she wanted this day to be perfect for her niece.

As perfect as Robin would have wanted for her.

Alice sensed the same thing Regina had, that Robyn might as well have picked Henry's name out of a hat. It wasn't fair. Her fiancée should have had her father there like she and her papa. Someone who loved Robyn more than their own selves, someone who raised her, who guided her, who would be truly giving the bride away on her next stop in life…

A sudden realization hit Alice. A quite, in retrospect, obvious realization that should have been thought of long before this moment.

"Robyn…" Alice grinned a toothy grin at the confused archer. "Love, forget Henry. Because I know _exactly_ who's going to walk you down that aisle…"

**Three Days Later**

Robyn couldn't contain the feeling of excitement and the glittering of butterflies as she triple checked her dress in the full length mirror.

It was a short strapless A-line lace dress that came down just below her knees in the front and an inch or two above her ankles in the back, the slightly curved neckline allowing her arrow necklace to be beautifully showcased.

Crystal beading, sequins and pearls were sown throughout the dress in an elegant design of leaves and ivy.

It was as if the forest itself had been weaved into her dress…

Her hair was in a simple side braid, just like it was when she and Alice first met, with both Kelly green and ocean blue ribbons braided into her dark blonde hair, the two colors the brides had chosen; green for Robyn's mother, blue for Alice's papa, the two people who had raised their daughters on their own into the woman they became today.

The same color ribbons wrapped around her small bouquet of paper roses made from Robyn's 'Alice in Wonderland' book while Alice would be carrying the same style of paper roses only hers would be made from the curly hair blondes 'Robin Hood: Myth and Legend' book.

"Flowers are just rude nasty horrible little things," Alive had told Robyn on more than one occasion. "I don't want them to be mean to us on our big day."

Of course Robyn had tried to explain to her fiancée that the flowers in Storybrooke weren't alive like the talking ones in Wonderland but Alice wouldn't hear if it.

So that was how the two of them wound up planning a wedding without any flowers whatsoever, instead decorating the castle where not only Regina had her coronation but Snow and Charming had their wedding with ivy and elegant looking leaves, branches and plants.

The door to the room off the main ballroom which they had made into a dressing room opened and one of the ushers poked his head in.

"Alice is making her way down the aisle," he told the bespectacled archer. "It's time for you to go."

Alice, one of the most superstitious people Robyn had ever met, had told Robyn to stay firmly out of sight until she was down the aisle.

Robyn took a deep breath before she followed the usher out into the small entryway. She could hear the music Alice had chosen to walk down the aisle to; the traditional bridal march.

Robyn looked around the entryway, her eyes narrowed in confusion. This wasn't right. One of the most important people that was involved was missing.

"Is… are you sure we're on time?" She asked the usher who was glancing inside the peek in the door to see when Robyn could go. "I don't see-."

The outer doors slammed open and she walked in, her dark brown hair straightened with the ends elegantly flipped up.

"Sorry I'm late," Regina told her in a quick haste as she fixed the strap of her stiletto. "I couldn't find my shoes, then my hair wouldn't do what I wanted it to, even with magic…" A deep breath to catch her breath as she looked over her niece.

"Wow… Robyn, you're beautiful…"

"Thank you. You look amazing too."

It had been too late for her to change her dress from the one she had bought to match the rest of the wedding party. But Robyn and Alice's situation was eccentric and about as non-traditional as a couple could be, it would make sense that one of the wedding party would be wearing a sleek beautiful plum dress that clashed with the rest of the group.

Robyn wouldn't have asked for anything else…

Regina walked over to her nieces and took her nieces face in her hands.

"He would be _SO_ proud of you, Robyn… I know he would be."

Robyn reached up and grabbed hold of her Aunt's hand, tears spilling out onto her cheeks.

"I know."

Regina gave her a soft smile before she wiped away the dark blonde woman's tears.

"Come on, don't ruin your makeup, Jacinda worked really hard on it."

Robyn let out a tear full laugh as she nodded, gently dabbing at the tears with a handkerchief that Regina had magicked out of thin air.

"Got it."

A deep breath from both of them as the bridal march ended and a very familiar song started playing.

Regina looked down at Robyn, her eyes wide with emotions.

"You said it yourself," Robyn told her aunt as the love song from 'Robin Hood'' being played beautifully on the piano echoed in the entryway. "The fox movie nailed his personality better than anything else."

Now it was Regina's turn to dab away tears less they ruined her makeup.

"I love you, Robyn."

"I love you too, Aunt Regina and... I would have been really happy if somehow you and him-."

"I know… I know."

Robyn took Regina's offered arm and with a deep breath, nodded to the usher that they were ready. The two men opened the doors and then, with nothing more than the absolute perfect person standing beside her; Regina proudly walked Robyn down the aisle…

And Robyn could not have been happier.

_Life is brief, but when it's gone… Love goes on and on._


End file.
